HEART-TO-HEART: Eyesite
“Art and music is everywhere growing up here, so it’s kinda hard to avoid - you either ignore it or embrace it.”
Young, loud and full of energy – Kingscliff quartet, Eyesite, are taking the local rock scene by storm. They’re also the cool dudes on our website homepage.
Published: 02/08/2024
FHR (Flaming Heart Records): Eyesite! I am so stoked to hear a new track from you boys. It seems to me that your sound is only getting stronger and more refined with every release. Can you tell us how Sweat It Out came about?
Harris (Brooker, vocals/rhythm guitar): I think we had two different parts that we were originally trying to turn into two different songs, but realised they sounded better in the one song haha.
FHR: I’m curious to know more about how you guys met in Kingscliff. You all met in high school, right? How did your paths cross to then eventually form a band?
Jordan (Green, bass): Yeah pretty much, I technically met Flynn and Louis back in Year 6 at Kingscliff Primary, but we got to know each other better in our Year 9 music class back in 2019. A few weeks after I first picked up the bass, Louis and Harris asked me if I wanted to play as a band at our school’s creative and performing arts show. Needless to say, I was super keen and thought it would be so cool to play in a band. We covered Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana and the rest is history.
Flynn (Thompson, drums): Bit of a different story of how I joined the band, as Jordan said, Eyesite started with the boys meeting in Grade 9 music class and had a different drummer originally. Things weren’t quite working out with our first drummer and I’d just started playing drums around that time, so I jumped in and started playing at the start of 2020.
FHR: What is it like being from a small coastal town like Kingscliff? Tell us more about your experiences as a young musician in the flourishing scene of the Northern Rivers.
Louis (Thompson, lead guitar): We are all very lucky growing up here, the music scene in the Northern Rivers is super broad and seems to have a bit of everything. There’s a lot of talent coming out of the area so it really drives us to keep putting the work in.
Harris: Art and music is everywhere growing up here, so it’s kinda hard to avoid – you either ignore it or embrace it. I think Kingy (Kingscliff) in particular has its own “flavour” of creatives making up some pretty awesome bands/acts.
FHR: Did you all grow up kind of listening to the same music? Like what got you all into that grungy rock sound? I can definitely hear some Silverchair influences, maybe some Pumpkins as well.
Harris: Definitely a lot of influence from my parents. They always had some sort of grunge pumping around the house.
Louis: Definitely grew up on all those names, was heavy into the grungy sound early on… Have branched out to a lot of different sounds now, but I think we all definitely share a similar taste.
FHR: You guys always seem to get the crowd going. An Eyesite mosh pit is bound to happen at a gig! Can you share any fun memories or highlights from some shows?
Jordan: One of my best memories would have to be from our hometown show at Kingy Hotel last year. The crowd was pumping and we knew so many people there. Harris also managed to get a wall of death going, which I ended up in the middle of while still playing.
Flynn: My favourite was our Cooly Hotel gig in December last year. It was the first show close to home we’d had in ages so everyone turned up – probably our best crowd to date! We had a few new songs in that set too, which felt great to play live for the first time.
FHR: I remember you had a different name prior to Eyesite in your earlier days… was it lab7…? What was the inspiration behind the name Eyesite?
Louis: Haha, I think lab7 makes us all cringe now… I suppose that’s how it normally goes when you’re 16 years old, trying to sound cool haha. In regards to Eyesite, it didn’t have much meaning at all. Must have sounded good to us at the time and we just ran with it.
FHR: So you teamed up with producer and engineer Cory Robertson for Sweat It Out. Tell us more about what that experience was like recording at Short Street Studio. It’s probably my favourite studio spot on the coast.
Harris: Short Street was great! It was a stress-free environment, which really helped us to experiment a bit and Cory helped keep us aligned with the vision we were going for, while also suggesting things from an engineer’s point of view.
Flynn: It was great to finally get into the studio, especially after all that’s happened with the floods, Cory had done an amazing job and the studio was really well set up. Everything ran so smoothly and Cory made it super easy for everyone.
FHR: Curate your dream festival line-up (with Eyesite, of course). Dead or alive. 2 headliners and 3 supporters. You gotta pick the location as well.
Jordan: Hahah okay, I’d have to say Nirvana and Radiohead as the headliners and Eyesite, Jeff Buckley and Violent Soho as the supports at Riverstage in Brisbane. If I could throw Rage Against the Machine in there somewhere too, I would.
FHR: So your first single of 2024 is out. What’s next? Are there any new projects in the works or upcoming shows we should know about? Promote the heck out of yourselves!
Flynn: It felt great releasing again, it’s been a while between releases. As for new songs, we have another single almost ready but I think we are saving it to release it as part of an EP at the start of next year, if all goes well. And for shows, we’ve got a mad gig on August 10th at Spangled Drongo Brewery in Murwillumbah with a bunch of other great local bands, definitely don’t want to miss that one. Also planning some big headline shows later in the year so keep an eye out for those too!
